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Carlos R. Fernández de Cossío, Cuba's Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, published a second version of his statement on Facebook this Wednesday, a post he had deleted earlier in less than 30 minutes, this time with the classic refrain of the official discourse: the "merciless economic war."
The first post, hastily deleted, stated: "A country that falls or fails by 'if only' does not need to be pushed." The phrase, intended to counter Washington's predictions about the regime's collapse, involuntarily ended up confirming the premise of its adversaries by stating in the indicative that the country "falls or fails".
The corrected version, which remains published on their profile, states: "Contrary to the anti-Cuban argument, if a country were to fall on its own, as they claim, it wouldn't need to be pushed by a ruthless economic war."
The only substantive grammatical adjustment between both versions is the transition from the indicative “falls or fails” to the conditional “would fall,” a change that is insufficient to remedy the original rhetorical damage.
By inserting the phrase "merciless economic war," Fernández de Cossío seeks to anchor the argument within the regime's familiar ideological grounds, which has for decades attributed the crisis to external causes.
However, the logical structure of the statement remains problematic: for the sentence to make sense, it must be accepted as a premise that the country is indeed vulnerable to collapse, something that Havana has been denying for months.
This episode is not the first for the deputy minister. At the end of April, Fernández de Cossío invoked the Constitution of 1940 to defend the revolutionary expropriations of the 1960s, without realizing that the same text guaranteed private property and demanded compensation. The pattern is consistent: arguments that, upon examination, reinforce the criticisms they aim to dismantle.
The official is the most active voice of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MINREX) on social media. This Tuesday, he called those who support the intervention of the United States in Cuba "accomplices," and recently stated that "Cuba does not pose a threat to that country" following the new sanctions.
The double setback occurs in a context of maximum American pressure. On May 1st, President Donald Trump signed an executive order expanding sanctions against GAESA and other Cuban entities.
Shortly thereafter, Secretary of State Marco Rubio described the regime as a "failed state" ruled by "incompetent communists," characterized by "extreme misery, chronic energy crisis, rampant inflation, and the absence of freedoms." And last Monday, it was revealed that Trump pressed his cabinet, demanding quicker results due to the slow pace of Cuba's collapse.
Since January, Trump has reiterated his prediction several times. “Cuba will fail very soon. It is really a nation that is very close to failing,” he declared on January 27. At the end of March, he was more explicit: “In a short time, it will fail, and we will be there to help it,” describing the regime as one of “poor leadership, very bad and corrupt.”
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